Hot or Cold?

The temperature in which you like your room is a very personal preference.  I have friends who keep their room so cold that I need to wear my winter coat in order to be comfortable in their house.  I have friends who cannot sleep unless their room is at least mildly chilly, friends who do not understand that to most people 80 degrees is a very high room temperature, and friends who, like me, settle around a low 70s setting night and day. 

Back at home, we have an air conditioning/heat control panel on each floor and for different parts of the house.  Thus, depending on our preferences my family members and I can set the temperature to whatever we please.  Small battles will often break out because each of us have a different preference.  My father is constantly hot, my mother is perpetually cold, I go back and forth depending on the day and my extremely  environmentally conscious sister takes the Jimmy Carter approach and turns the heat down low and puts on a sweater when she is cold. 

Now, I was well aware that there would be no air conditioning in Alice Lloyd Hall and came equipped with a fan to combat those sweltering September days.  (Just so you know, this fan worked very poorly and I sat at my desk baking in the heat on many occasions.)  After making it through the warm season, I was definitely ready for winter.  I grew up in Chicago and knew what to expect of a Michigan winter.  I had also been informed that the buildings were adequately heated to prevent the students from becoming very lifelike ice sculptures. 

However, after some very cold nights, I’ve learned that the heater has an interesting sense of humor.  There is a heat control knob on the heaters in my dorm room.  Should you attempt to turn it, you will discover that this knob actually controls absolutely nothing and you will spin it in vain waiting for any form of heat to come out.  The heaters seem to be on some sort of timer or they randomly decide when they want to emit heat.  This is very frustrating when your desk is by the window, it is 2 AM, you are still up writing a paper, and there is no warmth coming from the heater.  Blankets can only do so much when cold Michigan air is slowly seeping into the room.  After many nights like this I am sick and tired of being so cold.

Has anyone else been frustrated with the unfortunate heating system, or am I overly sensitive to the temperature?  If I am not the only one, has anyone found a remedy so I can stop shivering every night at my desk?